PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF THE APRIL THESES[2]

Written:Written on April 3 (16), 1917Published:First published in 1928 inLenin Miscellany VII.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages431-432.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1)Attitudeto the war.No concessions to “revolutionary defencism”.

2) “Thedemand that the Provisional Government”
should “renounce conquests”.(α) Attitude to the Provisional Government.(β) Attitude to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.

2bis) Criticism of the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.

3)Nota parliamentary republic, but a republic of
Soviets of Workers’, Agricultural Labourers’, Peasants’
and Soldiers’ Deputies.

(α)Abolitionof the army, the bureaucracy and thepolice.(β) Salaries to officials.

4)Specificsof propaganda, agitation and organisation
in the period of transition from the first stage of the
revolution to the second. Maximum of legally
recognised rights.

Supporters,honest, but duped by the
bourgeoisie, ofonly“war through necessity”, “war
not for conquest”, and their deception by the
bourgeoisie.

5)Theagrarian programme.(α) Nationalisation. (Confiscation of all landed estates.)(β) Each large-scale estate to be turned into a “model
farm” under the control of a Soviet of
Agricultural Labourers’ Deputies.

+ (γ)Sovietsof Agricultural Labourers’ Deputies to
be pivotal.

6)Asingle bank under the control of the Soviets of
Workers’ Deputies.

6bis)Notintroduction of socialismat once, but the
immediate, systematic and gradual transition of the Soviets
of Workers’ Deputies tocontrolover social
production and distribution of products.

7)Congress.Change of programme and name.A new International. Creation of a revolutionary
international....[1]

[1]TheMS. breaks off at this point.—Ed.

[2]Uponhis arrival in Russia on April 3 (16), 1917, Lenin spoke
about the new tasks facing the Bolshevik Party at a meeting
of Petrograd Party workers organised that very night at the former
Kšesinska mansion to mark his arrival. His speech was apparently
based on the preliminary draft of the April Theses.